Native American Culture Day

Interested in the arts? storytelling or music?Well Vermilionville will host Native American Culture Day, an educational, fun event for the whole family.

Nine Native American tribes from across the country will be in Lafayette this Saturday, to celebrate heritage and a way of life.

"We're unique in the fact that we still have people who speak the language because once you lose your language you lose your connect to the past," Chief John "Sitting Bear" Mayeaux.

The Avogel Tribe is just one of nine tribes that will share their history in Vermilionville on Native American Culture Day.Chief Mayeaux says his tribe looks forward to this day every year.

"We're going to be doing different types of dancing and demos with bead working. My wife is a storyteller for the tribe, so she'll be telling Indian stories and we're going to have exhibits of different items from the past," said Chief Mayeaux.

Many of the tribes make it their goal to really show the children their food, music and traditions.

"We were able to preserve what we do have from the past and it's been hard. We're just glad we're still here and we want people to enjoy that difference because without the natives there would have been very little history for the this country," said Chief Mayeaux.

David Cheramie says huge crowds always gather to experience the Native American influence thanks to the tribes.

"They're more than happy to represent their culture to the general public, so they're always coming up with new ideas and creative ways to please the people and educate people on their culture and they history," said Cheramie.

The event is this Saturday from 10a.m. - 4p.m. and it's free to the public.Also that day, there will be a ground breaking ceremony to unveil the plans for a Native American expansion at Vermilionville.For a timeline of events on the culture day head over to this link http://www.bayouvermiliondistrict.org/events/native-american-culture-day